Matewan
(1987)
★ 7.4 IMDb · 142 votes
Year: 1987
Runtime: 135 мин
Country: United States of America
Director: Джон Сейлз
Cast: Крис Купер, Джеймс Эрл Джонс, Мэри МакДоннелл, Will Oldham, Дэвид Стрэтэйрн, Кен Дженкинс, Кевин Тай, Gordon Clapp, Боб Гантон, Jace Alexander
Plot
Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.
Mingo County, West Virginia, 1920. Coal miners, struggling to form a union, are up against company operators and the gun thugs of the notorious Baldwin-Felts detective agency. Black and Italian miners, brought in by the company to break the strike, are caught between the two forces. UMWA organizer and dual-card Wobbly Joe Kenehan determines to bring the local, Black, and Italian groups together. While Kenehan and his story are fictional, the setting and the dramatic climax are historical; Sid Hatfield, Cabell C. Testerman, C. E. Lively and the Felts brothers were real-life participants, and 'Few Clothes' is based on a character active several years previously.